31 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 1 scored contests and 88 result rows. Beat one and you appear here the next morning.
Overall scores are only ever ranked against their own series — Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360 — so the overall-score records here are Master boards unless they say Backyard. The Backyard series keeps a full record board of its own.
State and provincial record books are here; outside North America, every country has its own page under Regions →
Showing the NB record book — every record below counts only contests held in NB. Records that can't honestly be cut by state are left out rather than shown with their national holder: power ratings, career streaks and Team of the Year are computed over a team's whole career, wherever they cooked it.
The biggest — and smallest — numbers anybody has ever put in front of six judges.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
15-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won the category with it
The best chicken anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won the category with it
The best pork ribs anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The best pork anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won the category with it
The best brisket anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
Cook the books at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
finished 2nd, behind 73-BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
and still beat 14 other teams
The days the judges gave nothing away. Somebody still had to win, and this is the smallest number that ever did it in a real field.
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
15 teams · won with 712.0000
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
15 teams · top score 712.0000
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
15 teams · even the win only took 712.0000
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
over Cook the books
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
over Cook the books
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
from 1 contests · first in 2025
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
Cook the books Aug 8, 2025
from 1 contests · 0 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won it with 712.0000
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
the title finally came in 2025
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
across 2 of the four meats
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
the 2025 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
Chicken · Aug 8, 2025
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Longevity — the teams who keep turning up, and keep turning it in.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
2025 → 2025
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
1 contests, 2025 → 2025
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
the 2025 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
73-BBQ Aug 8, 2025
from 1 contests
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
73-BBQ at Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
2025 → 2025 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team never misses — on the calendar in ink, every single year.
Records held by the contests themselves rather than by the teams.
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
won with 712.0000
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025
2025 → 2025 · about 15 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Aug 8, 2025 Aug 8, 2025
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2025 season Aug 8, 2025
across 1 states and provinces
The high-water mark for the sport itself — the year the calendar was fullest.
Somebody has to run the table. These are the ones who have run the most.
Craig Maidens Aug 8, 2025
2024 → 2025
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Craig Maidens Jul 20, 2024
the 2024 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Craig Maidens Aug 8, 2025
at 1 contests
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Rub Sweat and Beers | Chicken | Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke Aug 8, 2025 |
| Year | Series | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Backyard | DAWGS BBQ 🏆 | 1,356 |
| 2026 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,682 |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | Electro-Que-ted 🏆 | 1,414 |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,826 |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | WEEZ'S GROOVIN' BBQ 🏆 | 1,404 |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | CHUNKY BBQ 🏆 | 2,734 |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,773 |
| 2022 ↗ | Master | Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit 🏆 | 2,761 |
| 2021 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,804 |
| 2020 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,670 |
| 2019 ↗ | Master | B-S BBQ OUTLAWS 🏆 | 2,774 |
| 2018 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,840 |
| 2017 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,850 |
| 2016 ↗ | Master | PORKY BUTTS BBQ 🏆 | 2,846 |
| 2015 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,843 |
| 2014 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,936 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,940 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | TRUEBUD BBQ 🏆 | 2,940 |
| Category | Entries | Avg score | Avg winning score | Perfect 180s | 180s per 1,000 entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pork Ribs toughest room | 15 | 168.14 | 179.44 | 0 | 0 |
| Brisket | 15 | 169.66 | 177.70 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 15 | 170.13 | 179.44 | 0 | 0 |
| Chicken | 15 | 171.65 | 180 | 1 | 66.7 |
Sorted by average score — the category at the top scores lowest across the whole field, which usually means the judges are hardest to please there.